NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-30-2025 8PM EDT

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

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Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Coffman.org Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hurst. President Trump has ordered the Pentagon to resume testing nuclear weapons. NPR's Jeff Brumfield says there's only one place in America where they can test them, and?

That's in the desert outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. It's a place called the Nevada National Security Site. It's absolutely massive. I was out there last year. It's bigger than the state of Rhode Island. Basically, they dig a hole, bury the weapon, thousands of feet underground, and then they detonate it. But the test site is not ready to do a really scientific test.

They don't have the experiment design. They don't have the instrumentation. That kind of test would take years to do. develop because the U.S. hasn't tested since 1992. And here's Jeff Brumfield reporting. Trump is back in Washington after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korea. No deals on trade issues were reached, but China's near total export ban on rare earth minerals has been paused. Democrats are slamming the Trump administration for politicizing the military. And Pierce Quill Lawrence reports that

includes leaving Democrats out of briefings on lethal strikes against alleged drugboats. The Trump administration has labeled alleged narco-traffickers as illegal combatants. That's the legal justification for military strikes against more than a dozen small boats, killing more than 60 people without trial or presenting evidence. But Senate Democrats say they have been excluded from a White House briefing on the issue, and House Democrats say the Pentagon abruptly pulled its lawyers from a classified briefings, briefing of the Armed Services Committee. The White House says Democrats are soft on narco-trafficking.

Democrats say President Trump is using the military for politics, including making campaign-style partisan speeches on military bases, which conflicts with the U.S. military's centuries of apolitical tradition. Quill Lawrence NPR News. The leaders of several airlines are calling on Congress to end the government shutdown. In peers Joel Rose reports, top industry officials attended a meeting at the White House today. Delta Airlines and United Airlines are urging Congress to reopen the government so that air traffic controllers and TSA officers can get paid. Vice President J.D. Vance spoke after meeting with

aviation leaders at the White House. Everybody here is very worried that we're going to see more delays, more stresses on the people who are actually making the aviation system run. Staffing shortages of air traffic controllers have led to isolated delays with the latest at airports around Washington, D.C. and Dallas. But Vance warned that disruptions could become more dramatic as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. U.S. Futures contracts are trading higher at this hour.

Dow futures up about one-tenth of a percent. NASDAQ futures up 1 percent. S&P 500 futures up a half percent. This is NPR News. Open enrollment for people buying 2026 health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace. starts on Saturday. And as Sarah Bowden reports, many will get sticker shock when they see next year's pricing. Congress has not extended subsidies that make marketplace health insurance more

affordable. Monthly premiums, according to health policy think tank KFF, are expected to more than double on average. Devin Trolley is the head of the insurance marketplace in Pennsylvania. With these higher prices, what we'll really be looking at is how many of our current enrollees are making the difficult decision to drop coverage. And are we getting any new enrollees in, or are they really pushed away by the cost as well? If enough people decide to forego insurance in 26, that might result in even higher premiums for those purchasing coverage in 2027. For NPR News, I'm Sarah Bowden in Pittsburgh. Britain's King Charles is stripping his brother Andrew of his title as Prince. It's an extraordinary move,

capping Andrew's fall from grace because of his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The palace says the 65-year-old will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten, Windsor, and will be evicted from his home, the 30-room Royal Lodge. The recent publication of the book, Nobody's Girl, a posthumous memoir by Andrew's accuser, Virginia Jufrey, put the spotlight on allegations against Andrew back into the light. Recently, Andrew relinquished his title, using his other royal title, the Duke of York. I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News, in Washington. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

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